Crenshaw

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- He has won six events on the PGA Tour this season -- five since the beginning of July. He has reclaimed his ranking as the world's top player, as well as the dominant feeling he had as an amateur and during his first few months as a pro.Now Tiger Woods must take on a new role: as the leader of the 12-man U.S. team looking to regain the Ryder Cup after a four-year drought. The 33rd biennial competition is scheduled to begin Friday and end Sunday at The Country Club here on the outskirts of Boston.

MEDINAH, Ill. -- In announcing his two captain's picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team yesterday at Medinah Country Club, Ben Crenshaw chose blue-collar players he believes care more about the outcome than the income involved in golf's most prestigious team event.The expected choice was Tom Lehman, who has not taken a week off since the end of May in hopes of making his third Ryder Cup team. The less obvious pick was Steve Pate, who will get a second chance after being injured for most of his first.

Ravens defensive end Michael McCrary sat at a play table assembling Lego pieces, trying to get 11-year-old Joey Crenshaw to smile."See?" McCrary said quietly, his eyes sparkling. "This is a stretcher I made for the quarterback."Crenshaw, a fifth-grader at Cromwell Valley Elementary, all but yawned, telling McCrary he wanted to be a baseball player.McCrary then went to Plan B, bribing the kid with an offer of a Lamborghini."They're illegal in Maryland," Crenshaw said."No, they're not," McCrary replied.

POTOMAC -- Ben Crenshaw, whose last PGA Tour victory was a memorable one in the 1995 Masters, is in the midst of trying to juggle three separate agendas. Each one is the most important when he is involved with it.For one of the few times this year, however, he was not only able to concentrate on his golf game, but get something out of it, too, as he recorded 36-3268 in the first round of the Kemper Open at TPC-Avenel yesterday.It left him as one of six players two shots off the pace of co-leaders Greg Norman and Nick Price.

In his playing days, former first baseman/outfielder Steve Lyons once dropped his pants at first base in the middle of a game to shake out loose pebbles, and he often would scratch out a tic-tac-toe board on the dirt for a friendly game with the opposition's first baseman.Not surprisingly, Lyons was affectionately known as "Psycho," and with all that as background, Orioles fans probably should take his pronouncements with, well, a grain of sand, but the Fox studio analyst is quite high on the Orioles' chances to get into the postseason.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The second round of the Masters was not kind to the 40-something Americans.Ben Crenshaw improved three strokes to 74, but his 7-over total was well off the cut of 2-over, and he became the first defending champion since Sandy Lyle in 1989 to fail to qualify for the weekend. There is the matter of a green jacket ceremony, however, to see to tomorrow."I was frustrated," Crenshaw said. "I'm going to stay right here and be an innocent bystander."Tom Watson shot even-par yesterday, but it wasn't enough to make up for his opening-round 75. His 3-over total missed the cut by a stroke, ending his record string of cuts made at 21. Sam Snead completed 24 straight Masters, but only the last seven came after the institution of the 36-hole cut.Curtis Strange (4-over)

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Ben Crenshaw gets misty just thinking about the sequence of events that made him the defending champion for this week's Masters.The tears that began on his fourth walk up No. 18 last year at Augusta National Golf Club still fog his eyes. Crenshaw choked up talking to reporters in the interview room yesterday. Today or tomorrow, when he shows Helen Penick around the grounds, he had best pack a handkerchief."There's not a day goes by that I don't think about it," Crenshaw said of his unlikely second Masters championship.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- They're searching, these three famous American golfers tied for the British Open lead.Tom Watson, Hall of Famer, is trying to find his first victory since 1987. Ben Crenshaw, Masters champion, has been looking for a game that deserted him recently. And John Daly, long on drives and noncomformity, is searching for solutions for his headaches and the gaps in his resume.Maybe someone should call Scotland Yard and get them on the prowl.Success or failure will come by Sunday.

Dr. Marion Carlyle Crenshaw Jr., chairman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1980, was killed in a weekend traffic accident when he swerved to avoid a dog.Dr. Crenshaw, 64, who lived in Baltimore's Guilford section, was driving to his country home in Easton in a minivan after dropping off his wife at Baltimore-Washington International Airport when the accident occurred about 5 p.m. Saturday on U.S. 50 near Skipton Creek in Talbot County.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- One was obviously distressed, another chance at the Masters gone awry. The other was disappointed but satisfied to have finally come so close.Greg Norman, whose well-chronicled history for misery here at Augusta National is nearly unmatched by any other top-ranking player in history, was done in by poor putting.And Davis Love III, whose well-publicized failures at all major championships raised questions about his mental toughness, was done in by Ben Crenshaw.Both came close yesterday in the final round of the 1995 Masters; both fell short.